Pass rate
85.5%
Above average — 11.5 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 408 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £40–£106
2009 Alfa Romeo Spider MOT pass rate
- 2009
- typical 61,135 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
21.4% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2011 86.7% pass
- Avoid 2000 71.0% pass
Across the 11 years on record, a spread of 15.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 83.8%
- Typical mileage
- 61k mi
The 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider MOT pass rate is 85.5% of its MOT tests — 11.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Beats its own age and mileage
Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 74.0% and this one manages 85.5% — 11.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 6% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Alfa Romeo Spider? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 11.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 83.8%. The median 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider in this dataset had covered 61,135 mi.
78% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 87.8% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 84.6% of the time, April–September 86.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 5.15% of tests.
- 408 recorded tests behind this page.
- 85.5% overall pass rate, 83.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Alfa Romeo Spider, the average is 79.0% — best year 2011 (86.7%), worst 2000 (71.0%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 408
- Typical mileage (median)
- 61,135 mi
- Make and model
- Alfa Romeo Spider
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Spider MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 67% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (78% of tests).
Where the Alfa Romeo Spider is most common
Across all Spider model years on record (2000–2011): 3,172 Alfa Romeo Spider cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 7,090 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 98 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 98 | 84.2% |
| 2 | Crawley (RH) | 90 | 84.5% |
| 3 | Poole (BH) | 76 | 77.7% |
| 4 | Ashford (TN) | 66 | 83.0% |
| 5 | Reading (RG) | 64 | 76.9% |
| 6 | Southampton (SO) | 64 | 79.5% |
| 7 | Peterborough (PE) | 63 | 81.9% |
| 8 | Bristol (BS) | 60 | 75.7% |
| 9 | Sheffield (S) | 59 | 88.4% |
| 10 | Leicester (LE) | 57 | 82.0% |
| 11 | Stevenage (SG) | 57 | 81.5% |
| 12 | Guildford (GU) | 56 | 77.3% |
| 13 | Chelmsford (CM) | 56 | 82.1% |
| 14 | Enfield (EN) | 54 | 92.9% |
| 15 | Basildon (SS) | 53 | 83.0% |
| 16 | Ipswich (IP) | 52 | 74.4% |
| 17 | Coventry (CV) | 51 | 79.1% |
| 18 | Nottingham (NG) | 49 | 78.8% |
| 19 | Gloucester (GL) | 47 | 77.9% |
| 20 | Worcester (WR) | 47 | 83.0% |
The twenty areas with the most Alfa Romeo Spider cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the Spider
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 99 | 85.9% |
| East of England | 59 | 88.1% |
| South West | 56 | 82.1% |
| West Midlands | 48 | 87.5% |
| North West | 39 | 79.5% |
| Scotland | 33 | 90.9% |
| East Midlands | 20 | 75.0% |
| Yorkshire | 20 | 85.0% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2009 Spider
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2009 Spider
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the coil springs 5.2% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the windscreen 2.0% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
-
Check the tyre tread 1.7% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2009 Spider through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £40–£106 — and 6% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £40–£106
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: on or after 01/07/2008 emissions exceed…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 6%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 408 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the Spider, side by side
11 model years on record, from 2000 to 2011. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.0% to 86.7% — a spread of 15.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 71.0% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2001 78.5% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2002 78.5% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2003 71.3% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2004 83.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 80.1% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2007 79.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2008 79.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2009 85.5%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2010 85.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 86.7% coil spring fractured or broken
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2009 cars with a similar record
- BMW Z4 85.3%
- Toyota Estima 86.7%
- Jaguar Xk 83.8%
- Lexus IS250 83.7%
- Lexus RX450H 83.6%
- Jaguar Xkr 83.2%
Closest pass rates among 2009 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 453 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 97 | 21.40% | 19.76% | +1.64 |
| Brakes | 89 | 19.60% | 20.89% | −1.29 |
| Suspension | 87 | 19.20% | 20.98% | −1.78 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 61 | 13.40% | 12.21% | +1.19 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 44 | 9.70% | 5.52% | +4.18 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 28 | 6.20% | 5.57% | +0.63 |
| Visibility | 21 | 4.60% | 4.97% | −0.37 |
| Non-component advisories | 17 | 3.70% | 4.18% | −0.48 |
| Steering | 6 | 1.30% | 2.57% | −1.27 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 3 | 0.70% | 0.82% | −0.12 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.2% | £25–65 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.0% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £45–110 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 0.98% | £18–45 |
| On or after 01/07/2008 emissions exceed manufacturer's specified limit Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.98% | £60–250 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 0.98% | £60–150 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.98% | £3–12 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.74% | £45–120 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.74% | £45–95 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.1% | £45–110 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Advisory | 6.1% | £60–150 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 4.9% | £200–700 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.9% | £45–95 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 4.2% | £180–450 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 26 | 92.3% | 17,315 mi |
| 30-60k | 170 | 90.0% | 46,258 mi |
| 60-90k | 127 | 84.3% | 74,255 mi |
| 90-120k | 68 | 75.0% | 102,305 mi |
| 120k+ | 17 | 82.4% | 130,765 mi |
Source: 408 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2009 Spider MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider?
85.5% of the 408 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 83.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (5.15%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.96%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.72%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.3% of the time, falling to 82.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider in this dataset had covered 61,135 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider?
Petrol: 87.8% pass rate across 319 tests. Diesel: 77.5% pass rate across 89 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 84.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.